Today we’d like to introduce you to Samaiyah Muhammad.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My path to becoming a CNA started with motherhood. I had my first child very young, and I carried the weight of feeling like I’d disappointed the family that had given me everything. So at 17, with a one-year-old, I stayed in school — studying, graduating, and working all at the same time. I didn’t have the luxury of sitting around wondering about my future. I just knew I had to become someone my child and my family could count on. One day I was visiting my best friend and her aunt told me about a CNA course. It cost $300. I figured, why not bet on myself for $300? What did I have to lose? It was a quick way to learn a trade in a few weeks. I tried it, and I graduated.
Today, all three of my children are thriving. We made our home in Montgomery County — my boys, Samir and Sayyid, graduated from Harriton High School, and my baby girl Samaiyah, who we call Mimi, graduated from Lower Merion. My oldest, Samir, owns his own business. Sayyid works at a hospital and is learning a trade. And Mimi became a paralegal. I had them young, and watching each of them build their own life is one of my proudest accomplishments.
I thought being a CNA would just be a job — until I met a nurse named Nicky Tran. I’ll never forget her. She taught me what customer service really was, and what empathy, sympathy, respect, and dignity meant. She worked on the D wing with us at Brighten at Bryn Mawr, and one day instead of going to lunch, she asked us to take what I call the empathy test. We had to live as stroke victims: Vaseline smeared on one lens of eyeglasses to simulate glaucoma, a water-saturated diaper, using only one side of our bodies. I was excited — I was going to show Nicky and win that gift card. But when she opened the door at the end, I had tears welding out of my eyes, my asthma flaring up. She opened her arms and gave me the warmest hug. Some people walked out the same as they came in. A few of us — including me — walked out changed. That day changed my life.
In 2020 I was working in a nursing home when the pandemic hit, and it was horrific. We didn’t have the education to protect ourselves or our families — the virus was brand new and nobody knew what we were dealing with. We were on lockdown, uneducated and frightened, watching families lose it, unable to see their passing loved ones. I had to walk away in 2021. Going into 2022, I had a conversation with my daughter Mimi and told her I knew exactly what I wanted. I love being a CNA — 26 years in — even though we’re underpaid — but there was something more I could do with this work. I started educating myself on home care and worked nonstop, morning, noon, and night. I never gave up.
Almost five years ago, my mother Lisa got sick and passed away. God was so merciful to me — I got to tell her all the good she had done for me and my siblings, and promise I would be the person she always wanted me to be and more, and that I would never, ever give up. When things get hard, I think of Lisa and the things she’d say to me. I’d laugh it off at the time — “what is she talking about?” — but in the end it always made sense. She’d say things like “think on your feet, Samaiyah.” I dedicate all my push and all my drive to my mother, Lisa
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road.
The first challenge was knowledge. There is so much information out there, scattered everywhere, and I had to educate myself on running a business with no mentor to guide me.
The second was money. Trying to stay afloat while learning the financial side of the business from scratch.
The third is trust. How do I get the community to believe in a home care provider that’s been around for less than two years? I’m earning that trust one family at a time, while keeping the lights on and teaching myself everything as I go.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Nurturing Hearts Home Care Agency is a non-medical home care agency built on a simple promise: compassionate care, trusted support, peace of mind. We help individuals and families receive dependable support in the comfort of their own homes — everything from personal care, companionship, and respite care to post-surgery recovery, memory care, chronic condition support, meal preparation, light homemaking, and daily living assistance. We serve Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, Philadelphia, and Chester counties.
What sets us apart is that this agency was built by someone who has done the work. I’m not an owner sitting behind a desk — I’m a CNA of 26 years who has bathed, fed, comforted, and advocated for people at their most vulnerable. A nurse named Nicky Tran taught me early on that this work is about empathy, sympathy, respect, and dignity, and that lesson runs through everything we do. Every caregiver on my team is expected to treat clients the way they’d treat their own family.
What I’m most proud of, brand-wise, is that we treat care as a relationship, not a transaction. Our mission is empowering independence and enhancing quality of life — we want every client to feel seen, safe, and at home, and every family to have peace of mind during life’s hardest transitions. That’s what Nurturing Hearts means.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
What makes me happy? Seeing the worry in a family’s eyes and being able to reassure them that their mother or father is in the best hands. I understand the fear and the concern because I’ve been on that side of it. And every single time, the outcome is the same — they’re so happy, so relieved they chose Nurturing Hearts. I have people telling me all the time they don’t know what they’d do without our care.
It also makes me happy to employ great CNAs and home health aides — people who genuinely want to make a difference — and to be a team player right alongside them. And we can’t leave out Earth Day!
Pricing:
- Free consultation for families considering home care — we’ll talk through your needs and options with no obligation.
- Free educational information on sundowning for families navigating dementia-related behaviors.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nurturingheartshomecare.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nurturinghearts_homecare
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/183xyxpN5r/?mibextid=wwXIfr
